Resources

Ansys Charge Plus: ESD Arcing on a Cell Phone

Written by Adel Benleulmi | Dec 3, 2025 3:02:30 AM

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) events can cause arcing that damages sensitive electronics, especially in compact devices like cell phones. In previous tutorials, we went through the air ESD into a calibration target and air ESD into PCB tutorials available within Charge Plus. In this blog, we visualize primary and secondary arcing on a simplified cell phone model using ParaView.

Overview

ParaView is an open-source visualization tool designed for exploring large 3D simulation datasets. In this example, we use it to visualize the air conductivity results of the ESD gun discharging into a simplified cell phone model, shown below.

 

The 3D model

 

For this example, the source voltage was set to 25 kV. The source voltage and the ESD waveform are shown below.

 

The source voltage

 

The ESD waveform

 

The air conductivity results are shown below. The simulation reveals an arc from the ESD gun to the PCB, a secondary arc between the ESD gun and a nearby board, and an additional arc between that board and the PCB.

 

 

The video below walks through the steps in detail for importing the results into ParaView, and the model is available in the downloadable resources.

 

 

Downloadable Resources

ESD Arcing Model

Ozen Engineering Expertise

Ozen Engineering Inc. leverages its extensive consulting expertise in CFD, FEA, optics, photonics, and electromagnetic simulations to achieve exceptional results across various engineering projects, addressing complex challenges such as antenna design, signal integrity, electromagnetic interference (EMI), and electric motor analysis using Ansys software.

We offer support, mentoring, and consulting services to enhance the performance and reliability of your electronics systems. Trust our proven track record to accelerate projects, optimize performance, and deliver high-quality, cost-effective results. For more information, please visit https://ozeninc.com.

If you want to learn more about our consulting services, please visit: https://www.ozeninc.com/consulting/

CFD: https://www.ozeninc.com/consulting/cfd-consulting/ 

FEA: https://www.ozeninc.com/consulting/fea-consulting/ 

Optics: https://www.ozeninc.com/consulting/optics-photonics/ 

Photonics: https://www.ozeninc.com/consulting/optics-photonics/ 

Electromagnetic Simulations: https://www.ozeninc.com/consulting/electromagnetic-consulting/ 

Thermal Analysis & Electronics Cooling: https://www.ozeninc.com/consulting/thermal-engineering-electronics-cooling/